Bottom Out

1. Mud, Blood, & Motocross

Sophia's POV:

    I yawned and stretched, while swinging my legs over the side of the bunk bed in the camper. Today was race day, my first motocross (dirtbike) race ever to be exact. I have raced quads for a year or so but decided I wanted to try dirt bikes for a change like my brother and his friends.

I ran my fingers through my hair before hopping off the bunk bed. Today was Sunday, we had been here since Friday for practice and stuff. I could desperately use a shower but since the races are pretty much in the middle of nowhere and there is nowhere to hook the camper up to running water, I was out of luck. My hair was greasy, my face was on the verge of breaking out from all the sweat and mud, and there was a good amount of dirt caked on my riding gear since it happened to rain yesterday morning before practice. Not like it mattered though, I loved mud just maybe not for my first race. I walked outside and to the barrel of water, meant to wash our bikes off between motos, scooping up some water with my hands and splashing it on my face trying to clean my face just a little.

All of a sudden I feel someone run up behind me and pick me up. I turn my head to see Brody, my best friend. Him and I met a couple years ago here at the races. We immediately became friends because I was one of the only girls that did not want to date Brody and actually knew something about motocross. Now while there are a good amount of girls at the races, we are split into groups; the girls who race; who you can trust and are fun to hang around, the sisters of the racers; who are usually cool and know some stuff about riding, the girlfriends; which its a 50/50 chance with them. They can be cool but also some of them are airheads, and finally the girls who make their way around the track but not in the way you would expect, we don't like those girls. I fall into two areas, the sister and racer. I have grown up at the races for as long as I can remember, between going to professional supercross and motocross races, or just being here when my younger brother Wyatt and my dad races. Plus my family is opening up a motocross track to the public this year. It's not open yet but it will be by the end of the summer and pretty much all my free time consists of working on it. Just what a teenage girl wants to do during her summer, right? And the boys just really fall into two or three categories, the gentleman racers who are good sports, the asshole cocky racers who think they are the best, and the ones who are forced to race because their moto dad is living their dream through them. While at first it may be hard to tell the difference between them, I have it down to a point. Brody is one of the gentlemans, he was the first person I told that I wanted to race dirtbikes, he even helped me get my bike race ready and trained. Brody smiles at me.

"Do you want to go for a trail ride this morning before practice with me, Wyatt, Jett and Justin?"

"Sure, but only if you put me down." I say while rolling my eyes.

"Or I could just throw you into the barrel of water, since you seem like you're still half asleep." He smirks.

"I swear if you throw me in the water, you will not race today or ever again. I hope you have a will, because you will be dead." I say half joking half serious.

"Ok ok," He puts me down and throws his hands up in surrender and laughs. "You love me too much to kill me."

"Don't underestimate me brody." I say trying to hold back my laugh while walking to where my bike is set up under a pop up tent.

"Jesus someone's moody today, did anyone feed her yet?" Justin says, smirking. Justin is my brother's best friend and so are our families. I have known him since I was 7 and we have become extremely close throughout the last couple years. He is like my second brother and we trust each other with our whole lives. I roll my eyes at him and throw on my hoodie over my supercross t-shirt. Since we are going on a trail ride, I know it will be muddy and I don't want to get my gear dirty. It will be a quick and easy ride so I don't stress over not wearing all my gear too much.

"I don't know she was like this to me too." Brody says walking to his brand new 2021 KTM 125. It was beautiful, since he is a really good racer he has a bunch of sponsors so he got money towards a new bike. Ugh I wish I had that bike but mine would do for now. I have a 2016 KTM 125. It's a couple years old and has a couple scratches on it, but I can't complain. The boys get their gear on, and start their bike warming them up since it's around 8 am there is still a little chill in the air. I throw on my helmet, boots, and gloves, then start my bike and rev the engine a few times. We all head out to the trails, Wyatt and Justin in front and Brody and Jett behind me. I'm not sure how I feel about Jett, Brody's friend. It seems like we would get along but because he's a teenage boy his flirting is the most obvious thing. And sometimes it makes me uncomfortable so I tend to stay away from him. We ride the trails for a little while getting kinda muddy, but not as bad as I had expected. After riding back to the camper and eating breakfast that my parents had made, I got ready for practice. The boys never eat much on race day, I think it's part of them being nervous, the other part being they don't wanna throw up. I only eat one pancake and that's mostly because I'm nervous.

Not only is it my first race, I opted to race with the boys and not race the women's class. Why? To be honest I don't really know. I doubt I'll even do well in this race. Maybe I choose their class because there is more competition and kids my age but I'll never really know the answer. We have around an hour until the practice starts and there are only three practices so they will be over quickly.

When it's my turn to practice I just go out there and take it easy, this practice is with all the big bikes, so there are a lot of bikes out on the track. After practice I am feeling pretty good about how I rode. We're all sitting at my camper waiting for the race schedule to be posted. Now Wyatt and Justin ride in the same class, 85cc 12-15 age group, although they may be moving up to supermini, 125, or schoolboy by the end of the year. Now me, Brody, and Jett, all race in the same class, 125 2 stroke. I stand up.

¨Anyone wanna check the schedule with me?¨

"I will," Justin says while standing up.

"Ok" I get up and walk towards the tower to where the schedule is posted. Weaving my way through the group of racers and parents crowding it.

"Well it looks like you guys are moto #7 and i'm #13."

"Ok that's not the worst." At least we aren't the last race this weekend because there are 23 races, which is more than normal because quads are racing this weekend. I make my way out of the people and accidently bump into some kid who has his phone. He looks up and we make eye contact. I immediately notice he has these really blue eyes. Almost as dark as navy. I don't think this kid has ever raced here before because I would have recognized those eyes. They gave me a little bit of a weird feeling but at the same time I could stare into them for hours.

I quickly look back down and mumble, ¨Sorry.¨

"Yeah whatever," said the kid without sounding like he cared even the least bit. And then he went back to doing whatever he was doing on his phone. Ugh i hated the kids who were on their phones at the races. I mean come on, enjoy the outdoors a little. I turned and started walking back, with Justin walking next to me.

"Asshole." I said through clenched teeth, my nerves were making my patience with people really small. Justin just laughed. I immediately went and sat on the tailgate of my dad's pick up truck with my arms crossed. I was pouting like a child but I didn't care. If there is one thing that people don't really like about me is that I couldn't care less about what you say to me. And if you're going to talk shit about me, say it to my face. But because my nerves were getting to me I just wanted to be left alone for now. And that stupid kid didn't help.